April 8, 2021

Teen's Body Recovered After Indianapolis Canoeing Accident

In this March 30 photo divers from the Indianapolis Fire Department search the White River for a 17-year-old boy who went missing when a canoe he had been riding in went over a dam. - Provided by the Indianapolis Fire Department

In this March 30 photo divers from the Indianapolis Fire Department search the White River for a 17-year-old boy who went missing when a canoe he had been riding in went over a dam.

Provided by the Indianapolis Fire Department

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The body of a 17-year-old boy who went missing last week when a canoe he had been riding in went over a dam in Indianapolis has been recovered from the White River, authorities said.

Indiana Conservation officers pulled Kevin Josue Flores Rodriguez' body from the river on Wednesday afternoon near the area where he was last seen March 30.

Rodriguez’s family has been notified and his cause of death is pending autopsy results, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' law enforcement division said in a news release.

Rodriguez and Carlos Rameriz, 45, were in the canoe March 30 when waters swept it toward a dam near downtown Indianapolis. Both of them bailed out of the canoe before they and the canoe were swept over the dam, causing the canoe to capsize, said Lt. Angela Goldman, a conservation officer.

The DNR said Rodriguez and Rameriz were not wearing life jackets at the time.

Witnesses helped Rameriz to shore, but Rodriguez was last seen by witnesses floating down the river, the DNR said in its news release. Indianapolis police officers and firefighters searched for Rodriquez, but later classified their search as a recovery mission.

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